SSA Releases 2017 Draft Form W-2 and Form W-2c Specifications

SSA has released Draft Form W-2 and Form W-2c Specifications for TY2017 Reporting. There are a number of changes from the previous revisions of the two form specifications.

Form W-2 Changes

Form W-2 has a new box 12 Code FF money field, Permitted Benefits Under a Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (Code FF), and has been added to the RW Employee Record in positions 474-48 and RT Total Record in positions 400-414

AccuWage Online is now available to test EFW2/EFW2C wage files, and AccuWage Download is no longer available

The Social Security Wage Base for Tax Year 2017 is $127,200.

The employer and employee tax rate for Social Security will be withheld at 6.2 percent (up to $7,886.40)

The 2017 Social Security and Medicare coverage threshold for Household wages is $2,000.

New terms and definitions added such as EWR (Electronic Wage Reporting) and SSNVS (Social Security Number Verification Service)

BSO filers may upload their files beginning December 9, 2017

SSA is not able to process multiple data files in a .ZIP file

Processing time is down from 90 days to at most 30 days

Form W-2c Changes

Form W-2c has a new box 12 Code FF money field, Permitted Benefits Under a Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (Code FF), and has been added to the RCW Employee Record in positions 838-848 and 849-859 and RT Total Record in positions 821-835 and 836-850

The Social Security Wage Base for Tax Year 2017 is $127,200.

The employer and employee tax rate for Social Security will be withheld at 6.2 percent (up to $7,886.40)

The 2017 Social Security and Medicare coverage threshold for Household wages is $2,000.

To view the new Draft Form W-2 and W-2c Specifications, please click the links below.W-2W-2c